RAILROAD COM'N OF TEXAS v. WBD Oil & Gas

in which Chief Justice PHILLIPS, Justice ENOCH, Justice OWEN, Justice O’NEILL, Justice JEFFERSON, Justice SCHNEIDER, and Justice SMITH joined.

To regulate oil and gas production, the Railroad Commission of Texas has adopted general rules applicable throughout the State, 1 but because these general rules cannot adequately address the widely varying conditions found in the thousands of oil and gas reservoirs in Texas, the Commission may issue orders with detailed regulations for a specific field, which the Commission calls field rules. In determining field rules, the Commission has historically…